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Car Upgrades, Pt. 1

Due to the recent success I’ve had from getting a job (see a future post) and me having slightly more money than I expected to have at this point in the summer, I decided I would do a bit of celebrating and treat myself. Although I could have looked into purchasing some of those upgrades I need for my server, I decided that I would put a bit of money into my car.

When I first got my car, it was all factory parts. Although it’s old and have no intention of putting any more money into the car than I have to, I decided that it needed a better sound system. I had a simple logic behind this: any sound gear that I put into my car, I can pull out in a few hours when I get a new car. My first purchases when I got my car were a new deck and speakers for the interior. Within a month, I had hauled an old amplifier out of my basement (which was found in the middle of the street) and bought the cheapest sub woofers I could find (2 10″ subs with enclosures for $70), and put those in my trunk. After those subs got stolen (the joke’s on them – those subs were crap!), I decided that I would do an upgrade – to a Sony 800W amplifier and a 1000W Pioneer Premier 10″ sub, and a Stinger 1 Farad capacitor to help with the powering of said system. My system has been like that for about 9 months now, and I decided that I would put new parts in.

I decided that I would get two 6″x9″ speakers, enclosures, and another Sony 800W amplifier to power them. Although putting the speakers in the trunk would initially seem like a ridiculous idea, I left enough slack in the wiring for them to be pulled out of the trunk for public events where portable sound is needed, such as any Lindy Bombing events that UMSwing puts on. Although I had to remake some wires (and I almost ran out of wire to use!), installation went off without any problems.

One thing that I was toying around with and decided to do as well was to try putting neon lighting in my car. Now, this would normally be a waste of money for an old car like mine. After all, who wants to spend a few hundred dollars on StreetGlow? But, I assure you I didn’t spend that much. In fact, I only spent $40. Rather than buy glow designed for cars, I decided that I would simply use Cold Cathode tubes from Logisys. It required a bit of wiring hacking, but I managed to put two 12″ tubes in my trunk and two 4″ tubes in the front dash by the feet. So far, it looks amazing, and I’m going to get more later to replace the old lights in the car with LEDs so I can actually see things in my car.

I also replaced the windshield wiper blades with some snazzy-looking red ones to go with my car, but that’s not particularly important. After studying today I plan on doing a good cleaning of the interior and possibly the engine. I’m also going to get a paint touchup kit, but that’s for another day. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my trunk (and the neon) soon.